Thursday, January 31, 2008

So I tuned into the Democratic debate tonight and man, what a civilized affair it was. Utterly respectful, dignified, and wow, they stuck to the issues without taking a swipe at each other. It's almost like Clinton and Obama watched yesterday's mean fest between McCain and Romney and said, "Okay, let them eat each other; we're going to show America something else and that's how we -- the Democrats -- are going to win back the White House." While there wasn't a lot of fireworks -- I'm curious to see how the Today show spins this tomorrow morning -- there was lots of policy, and some humor but Clinton got the best line of the night when she pointed out it took a Clinton to clean up after the first Bush; it'll take a Clinton to clean up after this one. All in all, Obama was charming and more policy-oriented than usual, but I think the night went to Hillary.

A friend, who is a Republican, pointed out that the niceness might just be a front for something else. Edwards, my friend speculated, might be playing kingmaker, and setting up Clinton to get the nomination with Obama as vice-president. That ticket would be different, historic, but most of all, electable and unbeatable if McCain is the nominee. Edwards, the broker of this deal, would get a position as attorney general or Supreme Court justice. It's an interesting theory, so we'll see how it all shakes up. The Republican -- who started to sway towards Hillary after tonight's debate -- predicts Senator Clinton will be the nominee come Wednesday. If this conspiracy theory is indeed true, it would explain the niceness, the politeness, the "we both believe" comments, but most of all, Clinton's telling remark at the end of the debate when she said "We will have a unified Democratic party [in November]." What's a better way to unite all three main parts of the Democratic party than to put everyone in power in one way or another?

I just finished watching the Republicans' debate and it was not as entertaining as I hoped it would be. Huckabee didn't say much and Ron Paul got one passionate speech in about Iraq. McCain and Romney were just painful to watch -- maybe because there was just SO much of them and I rapidly lost interest in anything they had to say. It was more interesting to see how long Anderson Cooper would let them drone on compared to how many times he cut Paul and Huckabee off in mid-sentence. Bah.

Rumor has it that Giuliani is expected to drop out of the race and endorse McCain. Which is rather a relief. The more I read about Giuliani the man, the less I liked him. All we needed was another arrogant volatile guy in the White House with his hand on the red button to get things riled up again. And McCain, whom I could *almost* vote for if he weren't a social conservative, is an upstanding guy. Given this recent development, and *if* I had a horse in this race, I'd throw my support behind McCain. There's something about Romney that's just... I can't put my finger on it, but I find him a bit like a Ken-doll -- all artifice, all gloss and sheen. He's the Republican version of Edwards in that way.

I am still torn on the Democrats. If Obama wins the nomination, still not sure I can bring myself to vote for him. My vote here in extremely Red State doesn't matter anyway, but I'd like to vote for someone I like and could trust to do the job from day one. I don't think Obama is that person so I can't vote for him. Right now, my fall back -- since I'm not going to vote for a Republican nominee, not even McCain -- is to write-in someone and that person is probably going to be Dennis Kucinich, just because of all the candidates, he's the one who espouses most of what I believe in and want for this country. Of course, all this is speculation and as we get closer to November, this could all change to something else as I learn more about the candidates.

I was looking for video from this weekend's National Figure Skating championships and came across this one from 1998 -- Michelle Kwan's famous Lyra Angelica. I can't remember why I didn't see at the time (I did see her perform it at the Olympics that year), but I was glad to see it now. Just really pretty -- both the LP and the SP*. Commentators, as always, are amusing. Enjoy!

One of my email accounts is just completely overrun with spam right now and the ratio is something like 300 spams to one legitimate email. The emails literally come at a rate of 1 per minute. Other emails have spam as well, but I don't know why this one aggravates me so much. Maybe it's because I have to downloaded all the spam or on the web-based application, have to sort through it, and on the other email accounts, I don't have to. Anyway, I'm contemplating seeing if I can change the email address to something less spammy since it's making me absolutely crazy. If I see one more email from VIGARA 80% JANUARY SALE, I seriously will scream.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Weighty matters

Last night some friends and I were discussing just how hard it is to find exercise information for women who actually (gasp!) want to lift weights and develop muscle tone. Most of the advice articles I've read are all about lifting less weight for more reps because heaven forbid women have muscle tone. I've been lifting weights for about two years now, and the most I can say for my muscle tone is that I no longer jiggle. It's incredibly frustrating because we're only a couple months away from tank top season and I really want well-defined arms. The only thing I can think of now is to reduce body fat percentage so the muscles that I do have show through.

We also agreed that we love push-ups. It's a weird thing to acknowledge, especially since two years ago, I could barely do one on my knees. Now I can routinely do at least one set of 12 push-ups without going to my knees, and on rare occasions, I've managed three sets of 12 without knees. Seriously, there's nothing more empowering and psychologically uplifting than finishing a set of push-ups.

Monday, January 14, 2008

A little night music

Sarah Brightman's new CD, "Symphony", was supposed to be released tomorrow, but it looks like it's delayed until the end of January. In the meantime, I found the video for one of my favorite Sarah Brightman songs -- "Con Te Partiro/Time to Say Goodbye" -- with the wonderful Andrew Bocelli. Enjoy!

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Hooray for Hillary!

I stayed up until 10:30 pm last night watching CNN falling all over itself to figure out just what the heck was going on in New Hampshire. I kept watching those percentages and thinking, "So close, too close." Any minute, I was expecting Obama to suddenly come from behind and win the primary. But no, luck held, all the pundits were wrong (bad pundits!), and amazingly, Hillary won the first primary* of the season.

Of course everyone points to her 'crying' moment, though I've watched the video several times and I don't actually see her crying as much as her voice cracks for just a second. I didn't see it as contrived, I didn't see it as weakness. I saw it as a moment when you realize you're very close to losing everything you've spent 35 years working for, that you've given everything you can, and somehow it's still not enough because people find you 'unlikeable'. I've admired Hillary ever since she emerged on the national stage back in 1992, but that moment -- along with her performance in the debate, that spark of anger and passion, the sense of humor -- really solidified my admiration for her.

I really do believe Hillary is a better candidate than Obama. Obama is a dignified man with a great presence and beautiful poetry. But he's got so little experience on the global stage that despite his pretty words, I'm afraid he's not going to know what to do when. I think he's a great candidate who'll do great things for the US. I just think his turn is 8 years from now.

I'm also starting (scarily) to really like Huckabee. I think some of his ideas are weird, if not downright idiotic (quarantining AIDS patients? REALLY?), but he's a likable guy, dignified, has done some interesting anti-Conservative things, and with a gift for oratory. This last trait he has in common with Obama. It's no wonder people are attracted to these two candidates. They can inspire and speak with passion that we've been missing -- and didn't know we were missing -- for the past eight years.

Saturday, January 05, 2008

LotD

Here's a funny article from the NYTimes that I think a lot of you can identify with. I especially can because *I* was very recently sitting in the same seat and was asked to give up my aisle seat for a middle seat so a married couple could sit together. I'm a softie, so I did it, but grudgingly. But at least I had the SkyMall catalog to entertain me. That thing is AWESOME. All the crap you never knew you needed to solve problems you didn't know you had.

Clearly, I'm not happy with the Iowa results. I don't like Obama, even though 4 years ago I raved about him (but that was when I thought he was a good orator and senator, not as PRESIDENT!). I don't think Obama and Hillary would team up. I'm iffy on Edwards -- I just can't buy the guy as a populist. I'm really hoping Hillary wins NH, because if she doesn't, it's going to be Obama for President and I don't think the guy has enough experience. I mean, W had only a few years of experience as well and look where that got us.

Right now, if Obama is the candidate, I'd have to figure out how I'd vote in the election. I live in Very Red State, so it doesn't really matter if I write-in a candidate -- Dennis Kucinich, for instance -- or vote Republican. Mitt Romney I'm not sure about -- he's like the Republican version of Edwards, except you can buy Mitt Romney as a Country Club Republican, the very constituency he's trying to serve. I think if I voted Republican, it'd be for Ron Paul. I don't agree with most of his views, but he wants to end the war in Iraq, and that's good enough for me.

Thursday, January 03, 2008

Musiclicious

I'm loading up my brand new iPod with music, mostly songs from my own CD collection. This is exciting because it means I can actually listen to more than 80 minutes of music at a time without having to change a CD. I still remember how exciting it was to discover the world of 90-minute cassette tapes and how revolutionary that seemed compared to the 60-minute tapes. It's amazing to me just how much more the iPod holds yet it's a fraction of the size of my Walkman. Apple says I should be able to get about 240 songs on the thing, and it can play for 12 hours straight. Plus, it's a shuffle, so it means I'll rarely ever know which song is coming up next. Sometimes knowing what song is coming next is awfully boring. Anyway, I'm excited. By tomorrow I should have about 70 songs on my iPod, and that's nearly 4 hours of enjoyment. Priceless.